Packers Want to Know What Love Is

The Green Bay Packers can't truly know what they have in Jordan Love until he plays in real games. According to Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer, Love's big performance in Philadelphia shifted the team's thinking.

Whether it's a song from the 1980s or a mission statement for the 2023 Green Bay Packers, the message remains the same.

They want to know what love is. 

In the Packers' case, that means their quarterback Jordan Love. 

He was infamously traded up for in the first round of the 2020 draft after the team was a game away from the Super Bowl. 

Once he was drafted, chaos ensued. Aaron Rodgers was angry. The fanbase was angry. 

All the while, Love said all the right things and went to work. He knew he wasn't going to play right away.

There even came a point where he wasn't sure if he was going to play at all. 

Rodgers followed up the Love selection with back-to-back MVP seasons. The team went a combined 26-7 in those two years. They earned home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs in both seasons.

Despite having a first-round pick sitting on the bench, the Packers couldn't trade the reigning back-to-back MVP. 

General manager Brian Gutekunst, to his credit, swallowed his pride and gave Rodgers an extension that they continuously described as a multiyear commitment.

The thought when Rodgers signed his three-year extension worth more than $150 million was that contract would ensure Rodgers would retire as a Packer.

In fact, Rodgers said as much last offseason before a wry smile was followed by, "Unless they trade me." 

Everyone laughed it off at the time. Fences between the organization and its star quarterback appeared to be mended. 

That's when Love started to doubt his future. 

"Aaron wins back-to-back MVPs. They re-sign him. Things happen where I did have my doubts if this would be the place I would be able to call home and become the starter here," Love said in an interview with Sirius XM.

"I just trusted the process, kept my head down, kept grinding and I said, ‘What will happen will happen and I can’t force anything.’ I can control what I can control and obviously, I am given the opportunity.”

At this time a year ago, it was fair for Love to wonder if he'd ever get a chance to play. The Packers had spent the last two offseasons practically begging his predecessor to return to a team he was publicly feuding with. 

Love spent another year as the backup, hoping an opportunity would rise.

It would, and that opportunity changed everything for Love and the Packers per a recent story from Albert Breer. 

Rodgers got an opportunity similar to the one Love did in 2007. He was playing a prime-time game against a Dallas Cowboys team that was the top team in the NFC that year. 

Rodgers was 18-for-27 passing for 201 yards and a touchdown. He kept the Packers competitive in a game nobody felt they could stay competitive in once Brett Favre exited with an injury. 

Jordan Love's cameo in Philadelphia wasn't as long as Rodgers' in Dallas, only getting two series once Rodgers exited the game with a rib injury.

Love led the team to 10 points, including a strike to Christian Watson that turned into a 63-yard-touchdown.

While the stats ended up impressive, Breer notes, it was how Love handled that night that impressed the coaches the most.

Breer's story chronicles Love running plays that LaFleur thought could work, but that Love did not want to run if he entered the game.

Love executed a play he didn't want to run because LaFleur had built trust with his young quarterback.

Jordan Love changed everything against the Eagles. (Photo by Eric Hartline/USA Today Sports Images)

"That time is typically in practice. It’s hard to push that on somebody in a game. I was proud he trusted us enough to get him to the right look. He went out there and he ultimately executed it.” LaFleur told Breer. 

The Packers wouldn't win the game, but Love's performance opened eyes in Green Bay. Breer notes the team had concerns about whether Love would make it as a starter after his second season. 

Those concerns did not exist after Love's cameo in Philadelphia. Instead, that became a reason the Packers' strategy with Rodgers shifted.

Instead of begging Rodgers to return, the Packers waited on Rodgers.

When they couldn't wait anymore, they moved on to Love, because he had given them enough confidence to do so. 

Of course, none of this matters unless Love proves his performance in Philadelphia wasn't a fluke. 

Love isn't the only one who has grown in the last three years, LaFleur has too. 

LaFleur talked to Breer about Love's only career start, a nightmarish 13-7 loss in Kansas City in which Love struggled immensely as the Chiefs sent one blitz after another. 

“They zero blitzed the hell out of us,” LaFleur said to Breer.

"What I should have done in hindsight is start over with the game plan, not to throw everything out, but just have better answers for him specifically so it took a little off his plate. I was worried about it going into the game, and my biggest fears came true." 

LaFleur will need to adjust this season without having a Hall of Fame quarterback on the field. He'll have to cater things to the strengths of Love.

The above quote at least proves LaFleur has thought about what hasn't worked in the past, and what he could change in the future.

If Love pans out, some of the ramifications that could follow are fascinating. While the New Orleans Saints, Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Giants passed on opportunities to add quarterbacks of the future as their legendary starters aged, the Packers ignored the outside noise and trusted their process. 

If Love is even above-average, would another team be willing to do something similar as their quarterback starts to age?

LaFleur thinks there are benefits to it a quarterback sitting to learn.

"I do think that we would be able to develop more quarterbacks if guys were given a couple of years to sit and learn the game," LaFleur said to Breer.

That's a tough proposition for most teams because of the demanding nature of the NFL. It's hard for a quarterback to sit for one year, let alone three. The NFL simply does not have that level of patience. 

Most coaches and executives don't have that level of job security.

Could that change if Love is successful? Time will tell.

The Packers' entire franchise changed on Nov. 27, 2022. Whether it was for the continuation of unprecedented great quarterback play or throwing it all away remains to be seen.

What's certain at this point?

We're all going to find out very soon.  

💥💥 @TheMMQB Lead for 8.7 💥💥

"Prime-time game, just thrust in there, and he f---ing performed. That’s where we’re like, 'Wow, this kid has come a long way'."

The @Packers, @Jordan3Love, and how this became the time to find out.https://t.co/TipFEtju0N

— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) August 7, 2023

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